4 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Address term is a lingual unit designed to indicate person by the different
degrees of social status or intimacy (Trudgill, 1983:102). In term of form can be a
kind of a word or group of words to address the person involved in
communication. Address term is usually used by the people in social, it can be in
the form of title, first name, last name, nickname or combination of those terms.
Keshavarz (2001) also considers that terms of address are linguistic forms that are
used in addressing others to attract their attention or for referring to them in the
course of a conversation. That means that a person must know the good way to
begin a good interaction among the various types of society. Since an interaction
is begun from a selected address term to address others, it plays an important role
in social communication.
Address term is the worth study because it is a key to know the social
concepts in human relationship. Address terms open communicative acts and set
the tone for the interchanges that follow. Address terms also establish the relative
power and distance of speaker and hearer (Wood and Kroger 1991:145). That
means that most of people use address term to show their identity and their
relation status. In addition, the social information of the participants will be
5 the people from how others address on him. The power, the intimacy or the
distance of a relationship can be determined from the use of certain address terms.
An address term includes the social references. Using different terms in
addressing people are not independent from the social context. It based on the
distance in family and general (relationship), customary, sex, age, religious etc. Besides that, address term also depends on the setting or formality of context. That can be dissimilar from one situation to another. Holmes (1992:12) stated that
the variation that occurs depending on participants, setting, topic and function of the talk. The author tried to explain us that a social interaction can be built by the
right address term and determined by the way a person put address terms that
varies in every circumstance. The variations will be used, adapted and conditioned
to the right situation as well. However, an appropriate address term can create a
good social interaction. Then, the ability to use the address terms in interaction
makes an effective communication. It determines whether the line of social
interaction will continue or not for the next.
The appropriate address terms or names can even raise a certain social
value to someone. That is important thing how the way speaker addresses the
hearer, which differ with others. Mood and feeling about how familiar and how
much someone knows others are influencing the choice of address terms. As
Wardhaugh states, “In addressing another, the choice of name which you use for the other depends both on your knowledge of exactly who that other is (e.g., his or
6 naming or addressing itself. Therefore, address term becomes one of
sociolinguistic variables to determine the social dimensions prevailing in a
society.
The phenomena of address term occur in The Lake House movie. This
movie tells about the story of Kate Forster, a dedicated doctor who works with
insanely time and Alex Wyler. Alex Wyler, an architect who bought a house in
the edge of lake, which is also occupied by Kate Foster two years later. Kate left a
message in the mail box; it turns out to connect the separate distance between
those two years adrift. Interesting, how people are connected by a small mailbox
at the same house but different in time. When they know each other through the
correspondence deeply, then they fell in love. The writer sees the various address
terms used occurs by the different social dimension behind them. The importance
of discussing address terms in this movie is to explore how the characters
establish a social interaction process by using the right term. Address term is an
important since the right address terms show the social identities and social
relationship of each character, an attempt to convey the message from the speaker
to the hearer in order to be well received, by oral or written language. The process
of social interaction in addressing people in this movie occurs in two features.
Those are by the way of directly conversation and by correspondence. The writer
can see the social dimensions reflected from the address terms used by characters.
So here the physical contact is not a major requirement in social interaction. It can
be through a long distance or otherwise close range physically is not necessarily
7 Address term encountered in this movie varies in types and social
dimensions. The contexts of the people in this movie relate to the social
relationship, the different social environments, the media of communication, the
time and the distance. The use of address term often happen because there is
action and reaction between the characters involved. The function is to indicate
social identity and relationship status whether friendly, unfriendly, respected or
not-respected, intimate or distant, and neutral or comradely between the
participants. Therefore, a social interaction is not running effectively if the use of
address term ignored.
1.2 Identification of the Problem
The usage of address terms can be different from one situation to another.
Therefore, the writer is interested to analyse the address terms and to explore the
phenomena underlying the use of those terms in the movie. There are two main
problems to analyse in this study:
1. What are the types of address terms used by the characters in The Lake House
movie?
2. What are the social dimensions reflected from the address terms used by the
8 1.3 Objective of the Study
The objectives of this research are to identify the types of address terms
used in the conversation between the characters of the movie. And to find out the
influential factors of the social dimension which take the important role in using
address terms.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The analysis focuses on the using of address terms in spoken language
occurred in conversation of the movie. Some types of the address terms based on
the social relationship of the participants are Title, First Name, Last Name, Nick
name, Title last name (Wardaugh, 1986). The social dimension will be reflected
by the way the speaker uses the address terms. The writer uses Holmes’ theory
(1992) to classify the social dimension. He classifies four types of the social
dimensions; social distance scale, status scale, formality scale, and referential and
affective function scale.
1.5 Method of the Research
There are three procedures in conducting this research; collecting data,
Analysing data and presenting the result of the analysis (Sudaryanto, 1993:65).
In collecting the data, the writer used observational method, namely non
participatory (Sudaryanto, 1993). The writer obtained the data by watching the
movie first, then taking a note. When taking the data, the writer also captured the
9 The source of data is The Lake House movie. The data of this research are
the utterances of the characters that contain address term.
In analysing the data, the writer categorized the types of the address terms
used by the characters based on the theory proposed by Wardhaugh (1986).
Moreover, the writer found the different ways of the characters using address
terms depending on the social relation between them. They can be found by
knowing the identity of the participants. The writer elaborates the analysis by
applied Holmes’ theory (1992) of four types of social dimensions. That concepts
supported by ethnography of communication; SPEAKING (Hymes, 1972).
The result of the analysis are presented in two ways; informal and formal
method (Sudaryanto 1993:145). In informal method, the data are presented by
using picture and part of utterances. While the formal method; the data are
presented by standard verbal language to explain the analysis of the address terms.
In this study, the results of data analysis are shown in the form of table and verbal
